Rivers and River Transport 123 



" This has been done by the same vessel for ten weeks succes- 

 sively, and would often be done if they were not obliged to 

 wait for their lading." 



One of the affluents of the Trent, the little river known as 

 the Idle, joins it at Stockwith, 21 miles from the junction of 

 the Trent with the Humber ; and seven miles up the Idle is 

 the once-famous " port " of Bawtry. 



This particular place fulfilled all the conditions of what 

 I have already described as the ideal port of olden days. Not 

 only was it far inland, bringing a considerable district into 

 communication with the sea, but it was situated eight miles 

 south-east of Doncaster on the Great North Road, at the 

 point where this road enters the county of York. Until the 

 navigation of the Don was improved, under an Act passed in 

 1727, the Hull, Trent, Idle and Bawtry route was preferred 

 to the Hull, Ouse, Aire, Don, and Doncaster route alike for 

 foreign imports into Yorkshire and for Yorkshire products 

 consigned to London or to places abroad ; and Bawtry, 

 known to-day, to those who know it at all, as only a small 

 market town in Yorkshire, was at one time of considerable 

 importance. 



In the reigns of Edward III. and Edward IV., as told by the 

 Rev. Joseph Hunter, in " The History and Topography of 

 the Deanery of Doncaster " (1828), the lords of the manor 

 of Bawtry were " of the prime of English nobility," while 

 the market established there dated from the beginning of the 

 thirteenth century. When the sovereign or any members of 

 the Royal Family travelled in state to the north, they were 

 usually met at Bawtry by the sheriff of the county and a 

 train of attendants. 



More to our present purpose, however, is the fact that, 

 down to the opening of the second quarter of the eighteenth 

 century this inland port of Bawtry was the route by which 

 most of the products of Sheffield, of Hallamshire, and of the 

 country round about, destined for London, for the eastern 

 counties, or for the Continent, passed to their destination. 

 From Sheffield to Bawtry was a land journey of twenty miles, 

 and thus far, at least, packhorses or waggons had to be 

 utilised over such roads as there then were. The Idle is 

 described by Defoe as " a full and quick, though not rapid and 

 unsafe Stream, with a deep Channel, which carries Hoys, 



